Re: Unsolved Problems in Psychology

Posted by Carl Tollander on May 17, 2012; 3:15am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Unsolved-Problems-in-Psychology-tp7555188p7563082.html

Eric, so you've got a tech problem, not a science problem, and sure, the tech problem of trajectories wrt local gravitation can be "solved".  How do I aim the cannon (or the canon) and better, how do I metabolize my error when my initial notion turns out to be a bit off.  Still, do we understand gravitation in the (apparently more general) context of quantum mechanics, well, no.  So there again is my worry about the notion of "solved a problem", which seems, um, problematic.

As to your idea of "the game", my text was in reply to Jochen and perhaps others who, perhaps, had weighed in on the idea of "magical thinking" as, somehow, a bad thing, rather than Nick's inner universe, specifically.

Carl

On 5/16/12 8:41 PM, ERIC P. CHARLES wrote:

Carl,
My guess is that Nick can't play the game to anyone's satisfaction in the order you proposed. He could go down that road, but it will digress endlessly and readers will become sad. The only way to have things stay on topic is for someone to propose things until they find one Nick thinks has been solved.... and only then will he be able to explain in any satisfactory detail what it means (to him) for that particular problem to be solved. If five things are found that he thinks are solved, presumably some sort of general rule will emerge.

Eric

P.S. To flip the question (and please rename the thread if you take this bait): As far as I am concerned the problem of the path of a cannon ball shot out of a cannon is solved. It was solved several hundred years ago, parabolic trajectory, a little wind resistance, blah, blah, blah. If you think that problem is not solved, I would love to know the sense in which it is not.


On Wed, May 16, 2012 09:39 PM, Carl Tollander [hidden email] wrote:

OK, what does it MEAN to you to have solved a problem in psychology?
Are there criteria you can state succinctly?
Where did those criteria come from?

If you really can't say, phlogiston will have to do.   Folks were 
grappling with how to describe their inner experiences coherently, given 
all the other things they were thinking about.  I'm not prepared to be 
snarky about how they were (or are) deluded, or ignorant, or dim.

All explanations worth their salt start out magical.   Somebody, 
somewhere, somehow, perceives that the best data they can access or the 
best conversations they can find, don't make sense in some newly 
understood context, and makes a leap.

C

On 5/16/12 4:25 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> It is the task of science to replace magical explanations by
> scientific ones, isn't it? Chemistry has replaced alchemy,
> astronomy has replaced astrology, neuropsychology has
> replaced phrenology, etc
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/mysticpolitics/6333162973/
>
> I must admit I was hoping we could lure Nick
> back to the list from his self-chosen exile by asking
> some provocative questions. What would Nick say,
> are there any unsolved problems in psychology?
> Is there still any phlogiston theory in it which is
> waiting to be replaced?
>
> -J.
>
>
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Eric Charles

Professional Student and
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Penn State University
Altoona, PA 16601

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